If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Saudi Arabia uses Canadian Equipment against civilians.

Arranged by the Conservatives and approved by the Liberals, Canada's hands are dirty.

Ottawa ready to review Saudi arms deals amid crackdown
Canadian-made armoured vehicles apparently used by government forces in crackdown on Shia town

Experts consulted by Radio Canada International confirm that vehicles pictured in news reports and social media posts are indeed Terradyne Gurkha APCs.

"Combination/colour of vehicles (the one with turret is a UR-416) indicates they are Special Security Forces," Jeremy Binnie, the Middle East/Africa editor at IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, confirmed on Twitter after studying news reports and social media posts of the Saudi security operation.

Global Affairs spokesperson John Babcock says Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland is "deeply concerned about this situation and has asked officials to review it immediately."

"If it is found that Canadian exports have been used to commit serious violations of human rights, the minister will take action."

I have wondered for a long time why so many countries turn a blind eye on the actions and huge military spending of Saudi Arabia. Even after their involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and they were handled with kid gloves and never sanctioned or nothing.

Canada has weaponized many governments simply for profit.

Advocating a better Edmonton through effective, efficient and economical transit.

That's like blaming a gun manufacturer for a murder. If Canada hadn't supplied these vehicles, France, or Italy, or the US would have, so nothing would have been achieved other than pain for the employees / company that won this contract. Or how about if we export oil to another country, and that country refines that oil and puts it in its tanks? Is that as bad? How about supplying food that soldiers eat. Is that as bad? The plant that manufactures these vehicles is a Canadian success story, we don't have so many manufacturing success stories that we can afford to just hand the jobs away to other countries, because we are concerned that not every country in the world is a democracy like Canada. But if you think that is good logic, are you willing to give up buying a new cell phone, or a flat screen TV, because it has components made in China (a country that has a horrendous human rights record, every bit as bad as Saudi Arabia)? How is that different?

That's like blaming a gun manufacturer for a murder. If Canada hadn't supplied these vehicles, France, or Italy, or the US would have, so nothing would have been achieved other than pain for the employees / company that won this contract.

I haven't really bought that line of argument since I saw it employed by a child-pornographer, cornered by a tabloid news reporter outside a restaurant.

REPORTER: Do you think what you do is good for children?

PORN GUY: Hmm, no.

REPORTER: Than why do you do it?

PORN GUY: If I didn't do it, somebody else would.

Which is probably true, just as it's probably also true that someone else will sell the weapons that get used to kill innocent people in Saudi Arabia. But if you reject the argument for the child-pornographer(as I'm sure you do), I don't see how it suddenly becomes acceptable for the weapons dealer.

^So its bad to sell products to oppressive regimes, but its ok to buy their oil (to fund that repression), or their TV's and phones (in the case of China)? Go figure... like it or not we trade with all sorts of bad countries. If some of them use what we produce for bad things instead of good things, its not our fault, but unless we are willing to give up the things we purchase, it makes no sense to give up making the things we produce and sell to make those purchases (for other countries, with worse human rights records like China, to instead do that production).

^So its bad to sell products to oppressive regimes, but its ok to buy their oil (to fund that repression), or their TV's and phones (in the case of China)? Go figure... like it or not we trade with all sorts of bad countries. If some of them use what we produce for bad things instead of good things, its not our fault.

You've got a point, but that's a different argument than "If I don't do it, somebody else will."

^I guess so, I don't think LAV's are fundamentally a bad thing though, that industry, which is important to the town in Ontario, is being unfairly picked on (much like how our main industry is often unfairly picked on). Its not like Asbestos where there is no safe way to use it.

One day the world will pull their heads from their collective arses and admit that Saudi Arabia is an extremist-funding country of hypocritical oppressors, and cut them off. Their little empire would crumble overnight.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction" - Blaise Pascal

That's like blaming a gun manufacturer for a murder. If Canada hadn't supplied these vehicles, France, or Italy, or the US would have, so nothing would have been achieved other than pain for the employees / company that won this contract. Or how about if we export oil to another country, and that country refines that oil and puts it in its tanks? Is that as bad? How about supplying food that soldiers eat. Is that as bad? The plant that manufactures these vehicles is a Canadian success story, we don't have so many manufacturing success stories that we can afford to just hand the jobs away to other countries, because we are concerned that not every country in the world is a democracy like Canada. But if you think that is good logic, are you willing to give up buying a new cell phone, or a flat screen TV, because it has components made in China (a country that has a horrendous human rights record, every bit as bad as Saudi Arabia)? How is that different?

OK, let's start supplying North Korea. Or ISIS for that matter. After all, there's money to be made and we might as well hoover up as much as we can.

Moahunter's suggestion that we sell even more arms to Saudis before they get it from someone else is deplorable. Might as well sell them land mines, chemical wespons and enriched uranium to make as much money as we can by his reasoning.

Advocating a better Edmonton through effective, efficient and economical transit.